Mario Nocifera, a Frasca Food and Wine alum, spent more than a year hunting for space for a new restaurant. He found it. He plans to open Lower48 in the fall in the Ballpark neighboorhood (Cyrus McCrimmon)

Alex Figura, a chef with experience at nationally acclaimed restaurants like Vetri and Osteria in Philadelphia, Blue Hill at Stone Barns in New York State, as well as Michelen three-star El Celler de Can Roca in Girona, Spain, is Nocifera’s partner. Figura will helm the kitchen, and Nocifera, who has opened or transitioned eight restaurants in San Francisco (including Michael Mina) and Colorado in the past six years, will run everything else. The two guys met at Frasca Food and Wine in Boulder, where both of them worked.

“We are an American restaurant that embraces regional cuisine,” said Nocifera.

“We could say clam chowder, but it would maybe be a sauce for a fish instead of a chowder,” said Figura. “We don’t want to pigeonhole ourselves, saying the menu will be full of traditional American dishes, like jambalaya. It could be in the style of jambalaya, but not the exact dish.”

The dinner-only place, with 70 seats at tables, 20 at the bar, and another 24 on a patio, is slated to open in the fall; between now and then, they will be looking for additional investors.